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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

REthink high school ministry

I am right in the middle of our high school summer camp at Relevant Student Ministry and we are having an incredible week here at BigStuf Camp in Panama City. Even in the middle of an event I find myself in the RETHINK process when it comes to how we serve high school students in the coming school year. We serve a generation that is in a constant state of change but many times our ministry setting never change. I am betting that we probably need to rethink much of what we do if we serve an age group that is in a state of constant change. Sure, we are doing a ton of things the right way. When things are working is the best time to look ahead and see what adjustments are going to be needed down the road. Here are a few areas we are evaluating and working on implementing changes in the coming months. Look for a few posts in the coming weeks on each one!

Summer programming / it's getting harder and harder to get high school teens out of town for camp and for mission trip experiences...we have a few changes we are working on.

Connecting with the campus / in order to connect with teens you have to go where teens are. We have a few ideas we are working on to spend more time on the school campus in the fall and at the same time give teens needed space.

Challenge, challenge, challenge / we are working on ways to call high school students to go further with their faith than we have in the past. We are working on ways to make sure teens are reminded to spent time on what matters most.

Partner with the family / high school parents sometimes feel left out of their teens life and we hope to find more ways to keep parents in the process of spiritual growth even in high school.

Small group / small group is the heart of accountability and life change...we have a few ideas we are working to be better at fostering connection and community

Fun / I know it is not cool to talk about having fun in student ministry but why can't we create fun experiences where we communicate truth, connect with new teens, and change the pace? We have a few ideas.

How are you rethinking high school ministry? These posts are on the way this summer! Would love to hear some of your ideas.